River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-05-19
FUNERALS IN ITALY.

streets of superb Genoa, and journal
istic protest appears in II Seeolo KIN,
addressed to the city council. Grave as
the subject is, il is delicious reading,
and we have not the heart to keep so
good Il thing TO ourselves. Wit is
familiar even with death; it has the
audacity to tap Yorick's slull. We re-
fer to a paragraph in II SecolO NIX.
headed Time to Have Done with it. -
The writer proceeds to comment upon
the funeral mania of the Genoese:
Not the poorest nobody dies but he
must have a fine hearse with music or
banners and a long tail Of mourners
who obstruct the chief streets Of the
town. We protest against the ambition
)w too common, of everyone to bury
the dead with music and other adjuncts.
Our democratic principles do not per-
init il. We protest loudly in the name
of every interest injured. in the name
of the majority of our citizens. against
the bad custom which intercepts the
free circulation Of vehicles and pedes-
trains" Here the writer invokes the
sacramental word England, and says:
Al tlAttk EACAA NOhAAAAO NAANA - NtNtAth
England, il is absolutely forbidden to
funeral professions to move though the
streets with slow and measured steps.
If you wish to carry the dead through
our chief streets. it is proper that you
should do it, but at quick-step, for it is
not right that the many should suffer
for the few. Almost every day in the
,s.ff,af,,n1 - find xrnnrzalf no
fore block of carts, carriages, trucks,
closed carriages, and hearse or a
bier, waiting the convenience of the
dead or the living. The porters swear,
the car-drivers do their best to hold
their horses, and the traveller fears to
lose his train, and becomes enraged at
this illogical and barbarous custom.
I'VE journalists who labor for the
public and echo their complaints, and
to satisfy them even risk giving dis
pleasure, and risk even worse than that,
beg that the city council should give
serious and prompt consideration to
our protest. We will reply to those
who have mania for funerals that be-
yond the city walls there is room for
them to spread themselves. In our
narrow streets it is even difficult to
stir without breaking your neighbor' ;
eggs"
journalism is a perilous profession in
Italy, but it will be seen that in spite Of
danger our journalist of Genoa does
not hesitate to infringe apon the old
time privileges of the defunct. Italian
corpses at Genoa, if our journalist is
needed viii be struck by municipal de-
cree. and their transit to the tomb will
be FASTENED. Democracy in the name
of the majority has protested against
''the measured step and slow for
funerals. Even the king of terrors
must abdicate or retire, if he has any
sense of what is due. The majority is
to regulate custom in Genoa; corpus
minority is not to have street room in
the Marble city. The future for funer-
ais is not promising. 1t is like, time
without the hope of eternity; like life
without Immortality. There is perhaps
one honor to be reserved for the dead;
that is ''trOt for the avenue" But
doublequick is also the epitaph of de
corum.
1t will be remembered that the pro-
gress of the funeral procession OF Plus
TX. was accelerated through the streets
of Rome by degraded democracy. The
race through the Via Rationale, at
ut night, was scene never to be for
gotten. The funeral gallop gave a new
horror To death Funeral lights vacil-
lated in the hands of terrified priests
and monks, flaming torches shook and
streamed in fire rs if carried by swarm
ing drunkards. and there was wild
roar of discordant voices and the tramp
ing Of many feet 1t was a nineteenth
century dance macabre Of the rampant
Roman populace, and it gave to the
night funeral of Pho Mono the effect of
some Internal dance of the moccoletti
of an Internal carnival. 1t was more
than double-quick to the tomb; it was
wild flight. Our Genoese journalist
doubtless would hesitate TO justify so
great an outrage, or even to approve so
swift and indecorous a race to the sepul-
cher as the mob-driyen hcarse galloped
from the vatican to San Lorenzo. But,
if we understand him, he means no
time to be lost by "solemn step and
slow" Funeral horses are to gallop
apace TO the cemetery. We can sug-
gest an improved method of quick tran
sit to that terminus; railway to the
cemetery, through train express, viii
libcrate the streets of Genoa from tie
respect that delays the dciunct.
A funeral train at sixty miles an
hour can alone satisfy the American
mind the moment it is persuaded that
our funerals are too slow and an OBJ
struction in our streets. We lack time
TO read books, we lack time for art. we
lack time to read long article, we
have transformed literature into journal
ism, and the last phase OF successful
journalism is the short paragraphs.
The short paragraph may be
as harmless as bread-pill or dead
| ly rs the shot of a crack marksman-it
must be brief 1t is made with refer
ence to our dimisbed capacity to stand
fire or give sustained attention to, or
wait for, anything.
Having reduced the proportiouso of so
many great things because we think we
have no time or attention to give to
works Of long breath. rs they are call
ed; having condensed literature and
history to primers, why should we give
time and space to funerals or tolerate
the last vestiges of the madiGyal ma
jesty Of death? a past age must have
quick burials. an epitaph for sermon.
Reverence. that angel of this world, as
Shakespeare calls it, forbides haste and
inspires dignity of department. The
poorest nobody dead is invested for a
moment with majesty that compels
respect. In the old world not the least
impressive sign IS that everyone I'M
covers his head when the dead are car
ried by. Whether it is in farewell fol-
what goes or IN reverence for the ma
liesty Of death itself it is solemn. and
what is solemn lifts US above the vul.
garities OF life.
Lucky Mistake.